Trashers bounce back into second after pair of wins over Jackals

November 15, 2004 - International Hockey League 2 (IHL 2)
Danbury Trashers News Release


The closeness of the UHL Eastern Division makes for some interesting changes in the standings on a nightly basis. The Trashers started the week in 2nd place as they picked up two points with a 3-2 win over Elmira.

However, losing 4-1 on Saturday sent the Trashers to the cellar of the UHL East as Richmond and Adirondack held a slim one-point advantage over Danbury, which the Trashers made up on Sunday when they defeated Elmira 6-4 at the Danbury Ice Arena. Danbury's week again proves how tough the UHL Eastern Division has been this season.

TRASHERS WEEK IN REVIEW

MORLANG SCORES PAIR, ASSISTS ON TWO MORE AS DANBURY BEATS ELMIRA 6-4

November 14, 2004

The Trashers made the most of their first home game in two weeks, with a wild 6-4 win over the Elmira Jackals on Sunday night at the Danbury Ice Arena. John Morlang set a team record with a 4-points night (2G, 2A), while Brad Wingfield compiled 22 penalty minutes before his second period exit.

The night started out on a rough note, as Wingfield took a roughing minor and a misconduct under a minute in, but the Trashers notched their first goal at 3:11, Jim Duhart registering his seventh goal of the year, from J.F. David and Bruce Richardson.

Elmira's Eddy Lowe tied the score at 4:26, with the one assist going to Carl Drakensjo. The Jackals were outshot 12-to-5 in the first frame.

Eighteen infractions were called in the second period of play. Danbury's Wingfield made his second trip to the penalty box just three seconds in, after a fight with Elmira's Charlie Elezi; another bout started five seconds later, as Trasher Gerry Hickey and Adam Nittel went at it. Hickey received both game and match misconducts while Nittel got just a game misconduct. The remainder of the period saw six roughing calls, and one more fight. The only goal of the second period was a power-play tally from Brent Gretzky, assisted by John Morlang and Rumun Ndur at 16:16.

Five goals were scored in the final period of play. Jackals' winger Greg Koehler scored two, to raise his league-leading total to 16. Trashers' forward Doug Christiansen scored from John

Morlang and Alex Goupil for the first goal of the period. Mike Bayrack and Jeff Antonovich both tallied mid-period goals in the frame and Danbury's Morlang scored at 9:17, from Bayrack and David, and again at 19:31, on an empty-netter from Nicholas Bilotto and Duhart.

The teams combined for 109 penalty minutes, while Danbury led in shots 36-23. Trashers' netminder Scott Stirling was 19-of-23, while his opposing backstop Greg Hewitt was 26-of-32. The only power-play goal of the game was Gretzky's in the second period.

MCINTOSH STOPS 48 AS TRASHERS FALL IN RICHMOND

November 13, 2004

Ryan McIntosh might be the number two goaltender for Richmond, but on Saturday night he looked like an all-star as he stopped 48 shots en route to a Riverdogs 4-1 win over the Trashers at the Richmond Coliseum.

Danbury looked aggressive in the first period as they fired 13 shots on goal, but McIntosh stopped them all as Mark Turner's shorthanded tally at the 7:21 mark from Francis Belanger and Anthony DePalma gave Richmond a 1-0 lead.

The Riverdogs took a 2-0 lead in the second period on David Hymovitz's goal at the 5:03 mark from DePalma and Jonathan Gagnon before the Trashers finally scored on Alex Goupil's first as a professional from Doug Christensen and Mathieu Wathier at the 11:16 mark. Jim Duhart appeared to have scored earlier in the period as he stuffed one past McIntosh at the 3:27 mark, but neither the goal judge or the referee saw the puck, which was clearly past the goal line.

However, McIntosh was buried in the back of the net, cutting off an angle for either official to see the goal.

Gagnon added a goal in the 3rd period from Hymovitz and J.J. Wrobel at the 8:04 mark on the power play, while Ryan Prentice tallied an empty net goal with one minute remaining.

Guillaume Lavallee started just his third game this season for the Trashers and stopped 18 of 21 shots as he fell to 1-2-0 on the season. Danbury is now 7-6-0 for 14 points.

TRASHERS PICK UP 1ST VICTORY OVER ELMIRA WITH 3-2 WIN OVER JACKALS

November 12, 2004

Danbury used a 2-0 first period lead and solid netminding from Scott Stirling as the Trashers defeated Elmira 3-2 on Friday night from First Arena in Elmira, New York.

The Trashers accidentally struck first in the first period as Elmira knocked the puck into their own net on a delayed penalty call against Brad Wingfield at the 6:29 mark. Doug Christensen was the last Trasher to touch the puck and was credited with his second goal of the season.

Three fights capped off the first period, as Rumun Ndur and Charlie Elezi dropped the mittens at the 3:51 mark, while Gerry Hickey and Bryan Cummings squared off at 4:44 of the 1st. Hickey wasn't finished as he dropped them again with Chris Shaw at 13:06. While it seemed like the evening would be chock full of penalties, it was fairly clean after the first period.

Following a scoreless second frame, the Jackals got on the board as Greg Koehler netted his 12th of the season from Cummings and Carl Drakensjo at the 5:01 mark. Jim Duhart scored an unassisted goal on a blast from the slot at 13:01, but the Jackals got close again on a Jeff Antonovich goal from Adam Nittel and Darren Van Oene at 13:52. Elmira tried to score late with an extra attacker, but they were foiled in their last ditch try for a shootout.

Scott Stirling stopped 35 of 37 shots en route to Danbury's 7th win of the season (7-5-0 14 Points), while Greg Hewitt saved 24 of 27 in the loss.

DANBURY PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Scott Stirling
Goaltender
Norwood, MA
Statistics from 11/12 to 11/14: 2-0-0 Record 3.00 GAA .900 Save Percentage

Stirling picked up a pair of wins in his two games over the weekend as the Trashers beat Elmira 3-2 on November 12th and 6-4 on the 14th. The two wins were the first that Danbury had over Elmira as the Trashers lost to the Jackals in their first two visits to First Arena.

John Morlang
Forward
Coquitlam, BC
Statistics from 11/12 to 11/14: 2 Goals, 2 Assists, 4 Points +5 Plus/Minus Rating

Morlang became the first Trasher player in franchise history to tally a four point night when he added his second goal on an empty-netter at the 19:31 mark of the 3rd period in Sunday's 6-4 win over Elmira. Morlang scored both of his goals in the 3rd period of that win. He also accrued a +5 rating in the game after he was held pointless with a 0 plus/minus in the previous two games.

TRASHER TIDBITS

· Brad Wingfield continues his assault on his single-season PIM record (576 in 2002-03 with Elmira) as he has accrued 152 PIM in only 13 games this season. In Sunday's 6-4 win over Elmira, Wingfield tallied 37 penalty minutes on three fights, one 10-minute misconduct, a 2-minute minor and a game misconduct.

· Danbury continues to rack up a major amount of PIM'S as they're currently 2nd in the league with 580 PIM, just 5 PIM behind Flint. The Trashers also lead the UHL in 10-minute misconducts with 15. Wingfield (152) and Gerry Hickey (101) are the top two PIM leaders in the UHL.

· After not scoring a point in his first seven games, Doug Christensen has scored five points on three goals in his last six games. During that span he was held pointless only on November 6th in Quad City when the Trashers fell 3-1 to the Mallards.

· With two goals in three games over the weekend, Brent Gretzky has now tallied a point in 12 of the team's first 14 games of the season. Only the Richmond RiverDogs seem to hold Gretzky scoreless as he failed to tally a point on October 30th and November 13th against Richmond in a pair of Danbury losses.

· John Morlang's four-point night on November 14th (2G, 2A) was the first in franchise history. Mike Bayrack also scored two points (1G, 1A), for his 3rd multi-point game of the season to lead Danbury.

COMING UP...

Danbury hosts a pair of games on Friday and Saturday as Elmira returns to the Danbury Ice Arena for a 7:30pm face-off on Friday and Adirondack rolls into town for a 7pm tilt on Saturday night. Tickets are available at DanburyTrashers.com, by calling 866-565-PUCK or in person at the Danbury Ice Arena from Noon-6pm on weekdays and 9am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.



International Hockey League 2 Stories from November 15, 2004


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